Arguing and Thinking: A Rhetorical Approach to Social Psychology (European Monographs in Social Psychology) - Softcover

Billig, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521339871 ISBN 13: 9780521339872

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1989

Synopsis

Arguing and Thinking is an entertaining and scholarly exposition of ideas of rhetoric - from Classical times to the nineteenth century - viewed as social psychological theories. It is self-confessedly unorthodox. Social psychologists may probe experimentally the foundations of 'attitude-change' or 'persuasive communication', but in so doing, Michael Billig claims in his Introduction, 'they are continuing to think about the same sort of issues as those which filled the contents of Aristotle's Rhetoric, or Cicero's Orator, or Quintilian's Institutes of Oratory'. He is especially concerned to point out the relations between thinking and arguing, and suggests that the ability to contradict is one of the most important mental faculties. The argumentative aspects of attitudes, commonsense, roles and cognitive processes are discussed as the author himself takes issue with some familiar psychological theories.

About this title

Review:

'A breakthrough book in three different fields: sociology, psychology, and the rhetoric of inquiry ... Arguing and Thinking brings together the two fragments of our broken culture. It's science and humanism combined, as of course they should be.' Deirdre McCloskey, University of Iowa

'Arguing and thinking should be ... one of the most significant social psychological works of the decade. With its distinctive, argumentative model of human nature and rich collation of understudied sources, this work will become one of the classics of my own library.' Gary Alan Fine, Contemporary Sociology

'Arguing and thinking stands as a sparkling contribution to the conversation between the humanities and the social sciences ... [It] deserves to be much more widely known and used in our classrooms as well as in our scholarship.' Liz Jenkins, Philosophy and Rhetoric

'Arguing and thinking is a book of rare significance ... there are many worthy tomes which everyone quotes but no one reads. This is not one of them. It is a seminal work that should be read, and read by all.' Stephen Reicher, British Journal of Social Psychology

Book Description:

Arguing and Thinking is an entertaining and scholarly exposition of ideas of rhetoric - from Classical times to the nineteenth century - viewed as social psychological theories. The argumentative aspects of attitudes, commonsense, roles and cognitive processes are discussed as the author himself takes issue with some familiar psychological theories.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0521339871
• ISBN 13: 9780521339872
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296